Trump says super PAC will assume funding for controversial ads paid with public money

President Donald Trump said Monday night that he will stop using taxpayer funds to pay for a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that has featured him ahead of the November midterm elections, announcing that his super PAC, MAGA Inc., will pick up the cost going forward. A White House official told ABC News on Tuesday that the president’s statement did not mean he would reimburse the federal government for the ads already paid for by taxpayers.

“The President’s [social media post] was not referring to reimbursement,” the White House official told ABC News. Asked in person as he left the White House for an event in Maryland whether he would repay the government, Trump replied, “We’ll decide.”

In a social media post quoted by ABC News, Trump wrote, “I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.” A White House official confirmed Monday night to ABC News that MAGA Inc. will cover the ads moving forward but defended the use of government-produced spots as consistent with past administrations, calling them “Presidential Public service announcements” used to “explain policy and make the case for the nation’s direction.”

Spending, content and where the ads ran

AdImpact, an advertising-analysis firm, estimated that the federal government has spent at least $2.5 million to air the television ads so far. The Department of Homeland Security had set aside a total of $20 million for the broader effort, according to the reporting.

Four ads have aired in recent weeks. ABC News reports that one spot shows Trump in monochrome walking down a hallway and describing “the final battle” against what he calls “the deep state,” “the globalists” and “the sick political class that hates our country.” Another montage highlights policy achievements, including onscreen text touting the “largest tax cuts in history.” One of the government-funded ads was a near copy of a spot the Trump campaign ran in 2024, the reporting says.

The most recent ad focuses on the U.S. war with Iran and uses audio of Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over military footage, including unclassified strike footage. ABC News notes that the video appears to be the same as one played during the Republican midterm convention last month and that it was shown the Wednesday before Hegseth gave a State of the Force address at Quantico, Virginia.

Defenders and critics

Vice President J.D. Vance defended the government-funded ads earlier Monday, calling them “public service announcements” and saying, “They’re not partisan. They’re not — you know, it’s not like we’re advocating for a particular candidate. We’re trying to tell a story, I think, about how great the United States of America is,” according to ABC News.

But ethics watchdogs, several congressional Democrats and some Republicans have criticized the ads as inappropriate. Some legal experts and critics have raised concerns that the spots could violate federal prohibitions on using tax dollars for political propaganda; ABC News described those objections in its reporting.

The White House’s decision to redirect future spending to MAGA Inc. ends, in name, the use of federal funds for the campaign but — according to the White House official’s comments to ABC News — does not resolve questions about the taxpayer dollars already spent on the ads.